Word spread quickly through the student body that the band was playing Tuesday. Any class that Alice had with fellow band members, she asked if they knew, and most of them already did. The plan had been extended over the weekend, so now everyone was going to be at school early and already set up and playing when Mr. Tyler came in after the tardy bell. The thought of getting a new piece of music, of playing as part of an ensemble again, thrilled Alice, and all day she was giggly and upbeat. Everyone in band was.

That night, when Tina got home and asked Alice how her day was, she answered honestly, and with a big smile. "It was good. Tomorrow we actually get to play in band."

This caught Tina's attention. She looked up from the stack of mail she'd been going through. "What? Mr. Tyler found you a director?"

"No, some of the upperclassmen called their old directors and got us some music. It's going to be a student directed band until we get a real director." Tina looked at Alice for a moment, thinking, and then smiled and patted Alice's cheek.

"Well, that sound really cool, Al. Do you know who's going to direct yet?"

"No. I think we're deciding tomorrow." It was ultimately going to come down to a vote, and whoever had the most experience. Someone had to have been Drum Major or assistant Drum Major or something at their old school.

The next morning Alice got ready fast, factoring in getting to school early, and the extra time it would take her to walk while carrying The Behemoth. That was the nickname she's affectionately given not so much to the Keilwerth, but the case. If she was stupid enough to try, she could probably pick up the actual horn with just one hand. It wasn't heavy at all. But the case was so huge and bulky and had so much padding that it weighed at least double the horn, probably much more than that.

Last year her friends had pointed out that at least she wasn't hauling around a tuba, which she always told herself on days like this. As she slowly made her way down her street towards school, that's what she muttered to herself. "Least it's not a tuba. Not a tuba. Not a tuba."

After what seemed like forever, she was able to pull open the school doors and maneuver herself in. Quickly she made her way to the band room. When she walked in, her heart fluttered. The world was back in balance, because this was how a band room was supposed to be. Everyone was pulling out chairs and stands and warming up instruments. Jesse waved her over to a big circle of upperclassmen. Still lugging The Behemoth, she joined him.

"Hey, Alice. Ok, so what do you play?" He looked at the huge rectangular case.

"Bari sax." He nodded and wrote something down. A senior Alice was pretty sure was named Alyssa handed her a blue binder.

"This has got all of our marching/pep band music. We're going to play through, figure out what we know best." said Alyssa, pointing the white board, "There's the seating arrangements. Please find your seat quickly." Alice nodded, and juggling the case, her backpack, and the folder, she checked where she was supposed to be. She found her seat, grabbed a chair and stand, and quickly put her horn together, because most of the band had settled down and was looking through the binder of music.

Just as she started flipping through the binder, noticing it was all copies, Jesse and a few upperclassmen stood in front of the class. Alyssa let out a huge wolf whistle, and everyone was quiet. Jesse spoke first. "Alright, alright, ok. First off, thank you for being on time. This is everyone, so we're going to get started. I know we said we'd vote on a director, but we were talking, and it turns out that Alyssa here has the most experience, by a landslide, so is anyone opposed if she just takes over?" no one protested, so Jesse clapped. "Great. Alright, I'll let her take over now."

Once everyone was back to their seats, Alyssa flipped through the binder for a minute. Still looking at music, she spoke. "Ok, Soskatona hasn't got a fight song yet. Or an alma mater. My guess is that Mr. Maxwell was supposed to take care of that. Um… that's easy. Does everyone know The Hey Song? Let's play that."

Paper rustled, and Alyssa counted them off. The Hey Song was something Alice could play in her sleep; it was nothing but quarter notes for her, so as she played she looked around. She was seated in between the tenor sax and the baritone. It was a small band, much, much smaller than her band in Illinois. There were four flutes, three clarinets, an oboe, three alto saxes, one tenor sax, her, on bari, a baritone, three trombones, five trumpets, and three percussionists.

The song ended just as the first bell rang. Alyssa flipped through the music again. "Ok, let's do Sweet Georgia Brown. Look's fairly easy." Papers rustled again.

"Isn't this the Harlem Globetrotters song?" asked someone. Alyssa nodded.

"I think so. Ok, let's go…" Alyssa counted them off and they started playing. They were barely into the melody, however, when Alyssa cut them off. "Hello, Mr. Tyler."

The entire band whipped around to see Mr. Tyler standing in the entrance, looking on with his arms crossed. "What's going on here?"

Alyssa didn't answer his question; instead, she grabbed her binder and stepped down from the podium. "You're just the person I wanted to talk to." Jesse, Kyle, Kayla, and Logan got up and followed her. They led him into the unused office right next to the door and turned the lights on. Everyone watched them through the huge windows in the office. People mumbled, but no one really spoke up, because they all wanted to watch what was going on in the office.

From her left, Alice heard a voice grumbling. "He's probably gonna say no." Alice whipped around to see the tenor sax player, a boy she didn't know, looking down and mumbling to himself.

"No he won't. Look, he doesn't even look mad." Mr. Tyler, a small man, at least a foot shorter than Jesse, was looking up at them, listening to what they had to say with a curious look on his face. Curious, but not mad.

"I'm just saying, with our luck…" He shrugged and rolled his eyes. Alice frowned at his pessimistic attitude, and thought back to what Kyle had said last Friday when she first heard the idea.

"He has no reason to say no. It's not like we want to destroy public property. We just want to play music in band like we're supposed to, as opposed to doing homework."

The boy shrugged and unhooked his neck strap, setting the tenor sax on his lap. "I wasn't complaining about the extra work time." Alice sighed and turned away from the boy. They probably wouldn't be the best of friends. She looked back to the office to see Mr. Tyler nodding, and the five students grinning big. Alice smiled, too. He said yes, she just knew it. The group came out of the office, still grinning. Alyssa hurried back to the podium and began flipping pages.

"Okay folks, let's go back to Sweet Georgia Brown. I want to play it through all the way." Happily, Alice licked her reed and put the mouthpiece in her mouth. This was the way it was supposed to be.